netdev - ipoib neighbour free race?

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Date:	Thu, 19 Aug 2010 12:10:45 -0700
From:	Zach Brown <zach.brown@...cle.com>
To:	linux-rdma@...r.kernel.org
Cc:	netdev@...r.kernel.org
Subject: ipoib neighbour free race?

Hi gang,

We're chasing a bug that we can hit when we pull IB cables with
CONFIG_DEBUG_PAGE_ALLOC enabled.   It appears as though the to_ipoib_neigh() in
ipoib_neigh_free() under ipoib_mcast_free() is referencing a freed neighbour
struct.

The invariant here, as far as I can tell, is that cleanup_neigh is always
called as neighbours leave the hash.  We should never reference a freed
neighbour from the ipoib_neigh teardown path because ipoib_neigh_cleanup()
should free the ipoib_neigh before the neighbour drops its hash ref and can be
freed.

But I wonder if we can get a race during shutdown where ipoib_neigh_cleanup()
is called before the send path sees a neighbour and associates it with an
ipoib_neigh.  In that case we'd never get the neigh_cleanup() call to free the
ipoib_neigh before the neighbour.  Later teardown of the ipoib_neigh, say from
ipoib_mcast_free(), could try to clear the ipoib_neigh pointer in the freed
neighbour.

neigh_forced_gc() and neigh_periodic_work() are careful to only remove
neighbours from the table if their refcount is 1.  But neigh_flush_dev() can
remove neighbours, and call neigh_cleanup(), while others are referencing it.

My question, then, is whether or not neigh_flush_dev() race with the ipoib send
paths?  If so, it seems that we could hit this race.

It's been a long time (maybe a decade?!) since I worked with the networking
paths, so maybe I'm missing serialization that prevents this.

- z
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